The present invention is directed to an electrical contact designed to effect a crimp termination to an electrical conductor. More particularly, the invention relates to an electrical contact having a generally planar terminal element which is crimped to a conductor while maintaining its planar configuration whereby the contact may be disposed generally perpendicular to the axis of the conductor.
Crimp-type electrical contacts are well known and have been developed for termination with electrical conductors without the need of solder or other fastening means. One form of crimp contact constitutes a ferrule type of crimp wherein the crimp arms encircle the conductor along the axis thereof, with the active contact portion of the connector extending in the same plane as the axis of the conductor. One disadvantage attendant to such a crimp contact is that upon repeated engagement of the active contact portion of the contact with a complementary contact the crimp termination may tend to loosen, thus impairing or breaking the circuit intended to be achieved thereby. Moreover, such contacts generally require a crimping tool having an anvil portion to appropriately grasp and support the contact, in which event such contacts must be preassembled to the conductor prior to mounting in a connector housing.
In addition, the prior art crimp-type contacts are generally useful with limited configurations of conductors. This often requires the use of a plurality of different size contacts to accommodate electrical components utilizing different sizes and configurations of conductors.